Indicating mechanism for feeding apparatus.



H. E. UNDBLADH.

XNDGCATING MECHANlSM FOR FEEDING APPARATUS.

APPLICATON FILED JULY 2,1917- 7 1 ,258,027. Patented Mar. 5,3918.

7/ J3 ave 7 (1297*? HARMON E. LINDBLADH, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

INDICATING MECHANISM roa FEEDING ArrAnA'rUs.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

Original application filed June 25, 1913, Serial No. 775,737. Dividedand this application filed July 2, 1917. Serial No. 178,085.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HAnMoN E. LIND- nLAnH, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ofMassachusetts, have invented a new and useful Indicating Mechanism forFeeding Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to sheet-feeding apparatus such as that of myco-pending application Serial No. 775,737, filed June 25, 1913, andparticularly concerns means for indicating to the attendant the deliveryof a definite number of sheets, thereby relieving said attendant of thenecessity of keeping close watch upon the operation of the apparatus.Sheets are ordinarily separated after being acted upon by the machine towhich the feeder delivers into bundles containing a particular number.It is customary, for example, for the operators of ruling machines toseparate the successive reams of paper on the table of the feeder byslips of paper, and if they observe when these slips are reached theycan remove the ruled sheets in bundles of 500 each. It is diilicult forthe attendant to give this matter the necessary attention and too manysheets are frequently fed and bundled. The indicating mechanism whichwill now be described prevents this. In accordance with the invention,simple and accurate mechanism is provided for giving an audible signalupon passage of the last sheet of a predetermined group to be fed andfor marking said sheet to identify it.

The accompanying drawing, in which the same reference charactersdesignate like parts throughout, illustrates the invention in connectionwith the feeder described in detail in the above mentioned application,Figure lbeing a top plan view and Fig. 2 a sectional'elevation lookingfrom the right in Fig. 1. It will be understood, however, that myimproved indicating mechanism may be employed with any suitable feeder.At F is shown a portion of the frame of an apparatus for feeding sheetsof such material aspaper from a pile S supported upon a table T. Thedelivery of the sheets is controlled by retaining and advancing devicesR and A, respectively, the latter being rotated by a shaft 55 drivenfrom some suitable'source' of power. Fixed to the shaft 55 jus i side 9.at th stand rd of th fr me F is an actuating finger or projection 97cooperating with the teeth of a wheel 98 mounted upon the standard,these teeth being illustrated as twenty in number. At the periphery ofthe wheel is a projection 99 adapted to engage any one of the teeth in awheel 100 fixed to rotate in proximity to the wheel 98. The wheel 100 isshown as having twenty five teeth. Both wheels, while turning loosely ontheir supports, may be held against too free rotation by any desiredmeans, as by the pressure of springs 101. It will be seen that after thefinger 97 has engaged the teeth of the wheel 98 twenty times as a resultof this number of turns of the device A. and the consequent feeding oftwenty sheets, the projection 99 will have been moved through threehundred and sixty degrees; so that once in each complete rotation of thewheel 98 it will engage a tooth of the wheel 100, and after five hundredrevolutions of the projection '97, or a number corresponding to thesheets in a ream, the wheel 100 will have been advanced a full turn. Theuse of two wheels thus proportioned is to avoid the employment of a.wheel having five hundred teeth, which would be of excessively largediameter.

On the wheel 100, here illustrated as being on opposite sides thereof,are projections 102 and 103. The projection 102 engages an arm 10%depending from a lever 105 fulcrumed above the wheel 100, and normallydrawn against a stop 106 by a spring 107. Fixed to the lever 105 is aspring-tongue 108 carrying a hammer adapted to contact with a gong orother audible signal device 109. Once in each rotation of the wheel 100,or for five hundred sheets fed, the projection 102 will strike the arm104, raising the lever from the stop. Then as the pro jection passesaway from the arm, the tensioned lever falling upon the stop will causethe hammer to strike the gong, thus warning the attendant that a ream ofpaper has been delivered by the feeder. The projection 108 contacts withone arm of a lever 110, the opposite arm of which has an angular end orlatch 111 adapted to engage a depression 112 in a wheel 113. This wheelis secured to an oscillatory support or shaft 114 extending across themachine and journaled in brackets carried by the frame F, and has fixedto it an arm 115 upon which is a weight 116 tending to'force a pencil ormarking device 117 against the top sheet of the pile. The shaft 114 alsocarries a second arm or setting member 118, which when the pencil isresting upon the sheet lies in the path of the finger 97. When the gongis struck, as a result of the contact of the projection 102 with itsactuating arm, the projection 103 also engages the lever 110,withdrawing the latch 111 from the wheeldepression. This releases thepencil, causing it to mark the last sheet of the ream, thus giving theattendant a visual indication of the delivery of the predeterminedquantity. Consequently upon hearing the gong, he may at in a. suitabletime run over the upper sheets of those operated upon by the machinefed, and on finding the marked sheet will be able to remove theunit-bundle. Upon the next revolution of the finger 97 after tnetrimming of the latch for the marking device, said linger engages theend of the shaft-arm 118 raising the pencil from the paper and allowingthe latch to fall back into the depression, the pencil thus beingrestored to its normal posit on.

Having thus described my invention, I claim i 1. The combination withfeeding mechanism for delivering sheets one by one to a machine which isto operate upon them, of means to applying to a particular one of thesheets after a predetermined number has been fed identifying markefliectivoin all positions of the sheets, and means for signaling theoperator at the time of marking to enable him to promptly find themarked sheet and remove the bundle containing the predetermined number.

2. In a sheet-feeder, an audible signal device and a sheet-markingdevice, and a wheel rotatable in the action of the feeder and havingseparate projections for operating said devices.

3. In a sheet feeder, plurality of pro jections revoluble in the actionof the feeder, and a plurality of indicating devices of differentcharacter respectively operable by the projections, one of said devicesbeing constructed and arranged to inform the operator that the otherdevice has acted.

1. The combination with sheet-feeding mechanism, of a marking devicenormally held out of cooperation with the sheets, means effective afterthe predetermined number of operations of the feeding mechanismforreleasing the marking device to engage a sheet, and means operable bythe feeding mechanism for restoring the marking device to its inactiveposition.

5. The combination with feeding mechanism,of an indicating device,meansfor latching the indicating device in an inactive position. meansoperable by the feeding mechanism for releasing the indicating device,and

means for restoring the indicating device to its inactive position.

G. The combination with feeding mechanism, of an indicating device,means for maintaining the indicating device in an inactive position, andmeans operable by the feeding mechanism for releasing the indicatingdevice and for restoring said indicating device to its inactiveposition.

'7. The combination with sheet-feeding mechanism and an actuating membermovable thereby, of indicating mechanism, a marking device forcooperation with the sheets fed, and a setting member and a retainingmember for the marking device, the indicating mechanism cooperating withthe retaining member and the actuating member cooperating with thesetting member.

8. The combination with sheet-feeding mechanism and an actuating membermovable there-by, of an oscillatory support situated above the path ofthe sheets, a marking device movable by the support into contact withthe sheets, retaining means for the marking device, and an arm extendingfrom the support and cooperating with the actuating member.

9. The combination with sheet-feeding mechanism and an actuating membermovable thereby, of an oscillatory support situated above the path ofthe sheets, a marking device movable by the support into contact withthe sheets, retaining means for the marking device, and an arm normallyremoved fromthe path of the actuating member but movable into said pathof the actuating member when the marking device contacts wih the sheets.

10. The combination with sheet-feeding mechanism and an actuating membermovable thereby, of indicating mechanism, an oscillatory supportsituated above the path of the sheets and having a member provided witha depression, a latch for engagement with the depression, means operatedby the indicating mechanism for withdrawing the latch from thedepression, a marking device movable by the support, and means forrestoring the engagement of the latch and depression.

11. In a sheet-feeder, a rotatable feeding device, a projectionrotatable with the feeding device. a wheel engaged by the projection, aprojection revoluble by the wheel, and an indicating device cooperatingwith the last-named projection.

12. In a sheet-feeder, a rotatable feeding device, a projectionrotatable with the feeding device, a wheel engaged by the projection, apluralityof projections revoluble by the wheel, and an indicating devicecoopcrating with each projection.

13. In a sheet-feeder, a rotatable feeding device, a projectionrotatable with the feeding device, a wheel engaged by the projection, aplurality of projections revoluble by the Wheel, a marking devicecooperating with one projection, and an audible signal devicecooperating With another projection.

ll. In a sheet-feeder, a marking device movable by gravity toward thesheets, a latch for normally maintaining the marking device out ofcooperation with the sheets, and means effective after a predeterminednumber of sheets has been fed engaging the latch to release the markingdevice.

15. In a sheet-feeder, a rotatable feeding device, a finger rotatablewith the feeding device, a Wheel engaged by the finger, a projectionrevoluble by the Wheel, a normally ineffective indicating devicereleased by the projection, and means engaged by the finger forresetting the indicating device.

Signed at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,this twentyseventh day of June, 1917.

HARMON E. LINDBLADH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner 0! Patent,

Washington, D. 0.

